Twitter Criticized For Hiring White Male as New Diversity Chief

Jeffrey Siminoff has an impressive resume, but there's just one problem, according to critics: He's a white male.

Twitter has in the past admitted that its workforce skews very heavily male and white, but the company is hoping a new hire will help change that.

The microblogging service this week announced that Jeffrey Siminoff will join the company to lead global diversity and inclusion at Twitter. Siminoff has an impressive resume as Apple's former Director of Worldwide Inclusion and Diversity, but there's just one problem, according to critics: He's a white male.

His appointment was criticized by diversity supporters such as Mark S. Luckie, who doesn't seem to have a problem with Siminoff himself, but said it "makes no sense" to hire a white male for the role.

"Not saying a white guy can't be head of diversity but for a company that hires a majority white guys it sends the wrong message," Luckie wrote on Twitter Tuesday. "I'm sure he's a great guy but you've set the company back instead of moving it forward."

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Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the criticism.

Twitter last year said its workforce is 70 percent male and 30 percent female. Fifty nine percent of its employees are white, while 29 percent are Asian. African-Americans, Latinos, and people of other ethnicities represent just a fraction of those numbers.

Regardless of the criticism about his appointment, Siminoff will have some big goals on his agenda for 2016. Twitter in August said it aims to increase women overall to 35 percent, underrepresented minorities to 11 percent, and underrepresented minorities in leadership roles to six percent.

Angela has been a PCMag reporter since January 2012. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a reporter for SC Magazine, covering everything related to hackers and computer security. Angela has also written for The Northern Valley Suburbanite in New Jersey, The Dominion Post in West Virginia, and the Uniontown-Herald Standard in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of West Virginia University's Perely Isaac Reed School of Journalism.
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